How to Reclaim Your Narrative… as told through the lens of Black poets

To reclaim one’s narrative, one must first restructure the language from which that narrative arises – at least that’s what I believe. As an aspiring poet, I am strengthened in the opinion that the language we use to define one another is integral to the relationships we build and the societies that we live within. A singular word can hold a thousand meanings. And for the Black community, too often has language redefined the ways in which Black people are perceived and as a result, treated.

Therefore, I would like to highlight the following Black poets in their efforts to reclaim negative narratives, rooted in racism, sexism and all other ‘ism’s’ that have attached themselves to Black people like a ball and chain.

Zita Holbourne

Zita is a Black British poet and an award-winning human rights/ equality campaigner who has dedicated decades of her life to change. I was lucky enough to meet her at a ‘Poetry for Palestine’ event, where I purchased a signed copy of her book of poems – ‘Striving for Equality, Freedom and Justice’. At this event she presented multiple poems about racism, her experiences with it and the changes she was looking for from society. But she also highlighted the importance of not letting the misconstrued labels attached to Black communities by the media become embedded in our hearts and minds. For Zita, “reclaiming narratives” meant the active rejection of stereotypes.

Spiritual kin call me the griot of struggle…I reject the labels and stereotypes they try to pin to me – All I can be in Striving for Equality, Freedom and Justice: Embracing Roots, Culture and Identity, Zita Holbourne.

Gil Scott-Heron

African American poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron was born in 1949, during the Jim-Crow era, in which Black people were heavily segregated from their white American counterparts. His 20’s and 30’s were steeped in protest and advocation for the civil rights of Black American people and the unification of all African descended peoples. This informed his poetry and jazz and many of his works aimed to correct the history that had been usurped and re-written by white imperial powers. Gil believed that unification could be achieved by knowledge and the reclamation of ‘his story’ and the revelation of the true goal of colonialism. For Gil, “reclaiming narratives” meant calling out the lies embedded into history books and revealing the truth, in spoken word or at the tune of a saxophone.

But still we are the victims of word games… Places once called underdeveloped and ‘backwards’ are now called ‘mineral rich. – BLACK HISTORY in Now and Then, Gil Scott-Heron

Warsan Shire

The young Somali-British poet is award winning and prolific in her story telling. She is a first-generation immigrant whose poetry is infused with tales of East Africa and the unsung stories of immigrants and refugees. In her poetry collection, ‘Teaching My Mother how to give birth’, she tackles the intimate relationship that sexism plays in the life of young Black women such as herself and how it manifests in a relationship between a mother and her children. As a first-generation immigrant Nigerian woman, I often find myself reflected in her work – she writes for the people who are lost in the cracks of society. For Warsan, “reclaiming narratives”, comes in the form of confrontation and challenge: in her writing she challenges the ideals that patriarchy and capitalism have imposed on women.

Your daughter’s face is a small riot, her hands are a civil war, a refugee camp behind each ear, a body littered with ugly things // but God, doesn’t she wear the world well. – Ugly in Teaching my mother how to give birth, Warsan Shire

Christopher Okigbo

Christopher Okigbo – a Nigerian teacher, librarian and poet – died fighting for the independence of Biafra (a partially recognised state – now part of eastern Nigeria – that declared independence from Nigeria from 1967-1970, mainly populated by Igbo-ethnic people). I am Igbo and my father, who was born just before the civil war, saw his brother’s fight and remain forever disfigured by the events that took place in the attempt to fight against the attempted genocide taking place against the Igbo people, shortly after Nigeria gained independence from Great Britain. In Christopher’s 1962 poetry collection, ‘Heavensgate’, he describes returning to a time prior to colonisation and emphasises the reclamation of the culture and spirituality that had been lost in Britian’s rule over the land. For Christopher, “reclaiming narratives” means the re-establishment of “old” traditions into the daily lives of people who had lost so much in the wake of the western world and its imperialism.

Foreshadow the fire that is dreamed of – The Passage in ‘Heavensgate’, Christopher Okigbo

In highlighting these poets, I reclaim my own narrative, as a Black woman, as a Nigerian, as an immigrant, as an activist and as an aspiring poet. I hope in reading my story (told in fragments) and the poetry of others, you too are inspired to reclaim your own narrative and be critical of the false narratives you are told.

Cordismarie Chisomaga Nwodowilly – 10,000 Black Interns Foundation Programme (2024 Cohort)